Book 1

1. I decided to start off the year with something a little trashy. Well, not trashy, but a bit prurient and not too high brow. What with the death of my brother-in-law, tsunami devastation, a Chicago January and general pregnancy queasiness, I wanted something to suck me in. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters certainly accomplished that.

I read Waters' Fingersmith a while back and thought the author really captured the feeling of the Victorian era -- thieves' dens, mental hospitals and isolated decaying manors rather than witty drawing rooms. Like Fingersmith, Tipping the Velvet evocatively captures segments of Victorian society, including music halls, a sisterhood of decadent and self-important saphic ladies, and movements for socialism and suffrage. I didn't really mind its predictability -- like watching a BBC mystery it was quite comforting pretty much knowing how it would all end -- and it was, overall, a very moving coming of age and love story.